London based musician Al Costelloe has shared her single So Neurotic along with an accompanying video directed by Jesse Wong – the title track from Costelloe’s newly announced debut EP, out July 28th.
Produced by Ali Chant (PJ Harvey, Yard Act, Perfume Genius) – So Neurotic sways blissfully between jangly indie-pop and self-aware art-pop. A “tongue in cheek ode to anxiety” – as Costelloe describes herself, the track addresses her and her family’s tendencies towards overthinking with a welcoming degree of levity and humour, notably its rapturous chorus “mama’s got it / sister’s got it / grandma’s got it…so neurotic”.
Speaking more on the track’s lyrical inspiration, Alice said: “So Neurotic was inspired by me chastising myself over not being more like my partner and friends who remain so calm and unflappable in situations that would send me spiralling, and all started by singing the line ‘I wish I, I wish I could be like you’ to myself in the shower. At the time, I was also reading a book about how to stop overthinking and had just read a section about how over worrying/anxious thinking was passed down generationally and was startled and somewhat amused by how obvious this was in my own family and so wanted to explore this idea of the futility of fighting against your own nature.”
For the video for So Neurotic, Alice enlisted the help of longstanding friends and collaborators with an aim to “visually represent the feeling of being followed around by anxiety; living in a constant dance with your demons.” Watch the video for So Neurotic via YouTube below.
“My very talented friend, designer and maker Lauren MacDonald (Working Cloth) created the neurotic creature’s costume using my pretty unhelpful brief of ‘a creature that is menacing and stressful but also a bit cute’ and Alice Roots from female performance company Figs in Wigs worked on choreography and brought the neurotic creature to life.
My longtime collaborator from Big Deal, Jesse Wong, filmed, directed and edited the video, focusing on imbuing the video with a similar mixture of melancholy and humour present in the track, and bravely took multiple tennis balls to the face in order to get our tennis sequence.”
Taking influence from the indie classics she grew up with like The Strokes, as well as artists she’s grown to love more recently, Alice shared more of the influences at her play on her debut EP: “I’ve been super inspired since I started this project by everything Cate Le Bon releases, her artistry and playfulness was actually part of what made me want to make music again. And also the introspection and vulnerability of Julia Jacklin which broke my heart the first time I heard ‘Comfort’ playing in a record store.”
Costelloe’s upcoming debut EP ‘So Neurotic’ deals with themes of anxiety, trying to move on from difficult times and wishing things were different. “I initially resisted leaning into these themes,” she explains. “My thinking was that it would make for a pretty bleak EP, but eventually decided that the tracks all together actually provided a snapshot of the way I’d been feeling at that particular point in time and felt would be cathartic to get them all out into the world and out of my system and try to hopefully move on to new ground.”
Formerly of critically acclaimed shoegaze duo Big Deal (Mute Records) and previously live bassist for Superfood, since embarking on her solo career Alice Costelloe has sold out numerous London headline shows, performed at tastemaker festivals The Great Escape and Live At Leeds and embarked on a full UK tour in support of Wings Of Desire.
Alice has received enthusiastic support from BBC 6 Music, with her first 3 singles California, The Other Side and Badmouth all heavily rotated on the station by Steve Lamacq, Craig Charles, Lauren Laverne, Nemone and Iggy Pop, with Craig Charles interviewing her about the latter single, and featuring as Steve Lamacq’s ‘Spotlight Artist’ on his ‘New Music Fix’ show, as well as featuring on his best tracks of 2022 list.
‘So Neurotic’ EP track list
1. So Neurotic
2. Badmouth
3. Shrinks Couch
4. To Be Free
Al Costelloe will release her debut EP ‘So Neurotic’ on July 28th. New single and title track So Neurotic is out now.
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